New horse head tossing - what can I do now?

[curly]

Hi, I've had my cob now for just a few weeks. When we tried him he was very calm both in the school and out on a hack. My daughter rode him first and then I rode him too. He didn't head toss at all. As soon as we bought him and took him to a livery yard he has head tossed a lot. He seems to do it when impatient and also on the way home on a hack. He doesn't head toss when in more active schooling work in the arena. I am taking 'ride with your mind' lessons where there is a lot of walking to fine tune things and he tosses his head a lot during that. It's as if he's impatient to be doing something more. He doesn't head toss in the stable or out in the field or when turned out in the sand paddock. I don't therefore think it is an allergy related behaviour.

Within the first week, he had his teeth done, new balance saddle fitted and a McTimoney assessment and treatment the week after. I'm quite worried as it's quite a pronounced up and down movement and he seems generally much more spooky and on alert than we witnessed or they described him as.

Anyone have any ideas as to what to do. Previous people did have a very tight martingale on him and we have taken it off as I don't think clamping his head down is the right thing. Any ideas or any one had experience of similar behaviour?

I've just tried a Miklem Bridle on him but daughter said he tossed his head more out on a hack tonight.

At a loss as to what to do now. Is there any kind of work I can do as he does it so that he associates head tossing with then having to do more work type of thing?!

[antares]

This could be a reaction to many things, including stress, change in environment, change to equipment (bit or saddle for example), change in diet, change in type and amount of exercise, change in amount of turnout times... Etc etc.

Part of horse ownership is to find the cause of the issue, we've all been there

Have you spoken to the old owners to see if he has done this at any time previously?

Did you get an idea from them about his workload, feed requirements, turnout time, routines etc and have you tried to do similar?

He's probably just taking a little time to settle in, that's normal but maybe he's not getting as much work if you're spending a lot of time in walk and previous owners did fast work.

When he head tossed hacking with your daughter was she riding alone or with company?

[curly]

Hi Antares, thanks for your reply.

I agree with what you're saying about changes. The saddle he came with was abominable. I refused to put it on him after the first ride as he was jumping in the air when it slipped round. It was obviously pinching his spine and so is now in the bin and he has a lovely Balance Saddle instead. We put him in the same bit that they had him in. The story behind him is that his owner couldn't pay the livery yard owner his keep and so the livery owner bought him, schooled him up for 4 weeks and then sold him to me. I think that he had been lunged in side reins and as you say, did a lot of fast work. That's not really the way we are with horses and so I think a lot of it is impatience and confusion on his part. He in some ways is unfortunately moving again in 2 weeks and this will be our permanent yard. It's only got 7 horses and has amazing facilities so I hope that he will settle and be happier. I can increase his work there as there is an indoor and a horse walker and quieter hacking.

He has only hacked out with a quite spirited tb race horse who does spook every 10 seconds so that probably doesn't help too! The horses are a lot more settled at the new yard, I know because I used to own one of them!


He has a lovely nature, just the head tossing and a bit of attitude that has got me worried.

[antares]

It sounds to me like a stress reaction.

Does it worry your daughter?

If I was riding this horse I would play around with things a little, try lighter contact, try slightly stronger contact (sometimes it helps if they can really feel someone there!), slow things down, push him on, do a few shoulder in steps, anything to regain his attention

Or you could just ignore it completely, monitor to see if it gets worse and get a second opinion on the teeth, back and saddle

[kafee]

Could it be a reaction to not wearing the martingale?

[curly]

I think it's probably a combination of things. New place, change of routine, not enough work, the martingale coming off, etc. I will monitor him closely when we move yards and he will have a more consistent routine at the new yard and it is much closer to my home so I can spend more time with him. I've started to do ground work with him too and I don't think he will have had that before so we are asking him to really think about a lot more than he is used to! In the school we are asking him to work properly rather than bam bam bam schooling and I think he's probably having a little protest to everything new. The head tossing on the way home I think is just impatience. We did put a martingale on him but it wasn't tight so did no more than provide a neck strap. It's something I might look into again though.

Thanks everyone.